I realized how our „ruler“ has perfected the tehnique of taking over protests, especially when they are organized spontaneously and express people’s rage aginst the regime. The technique considers positioning a few hundred of special under cover forces at the front of the rally, making them the leaders of the crowd, shouting slogans prepared in advance.
INFILTRATION OF SPECIAL FORCES
On the recent protest against the curfew, one could witness the typical example of taking over the protest from the people. Soon after the unsatisfied crowd started gathering in front of the Serbian parliament, an organized group visibly different from the rest of the crowd, whose profession obviolusly requires physical fitness – positioned just next to the main entrance to the Serbian parliament building. Some called them the Right, some called them hooligans, but they look to me as special police forces or their aids. According to the testimony of ex policeman Vladimir Savić, those people are the agents of the so called ‘Department for Special Purposes’ within the Serbian Internal Affairs Ministry, trained in the police training centres called „Makiš“ in Belgrade.
IMPOSING THE AGENDA
They come organized to the protest with their own agenda and being the largest organized group of individuals within the crowd, they have the power to shout slogans and decide when and which songs to use. Their loudest slogans were those like „Go to Kosovo“, „Vučić is Albanian“, „Vučić is gay“ and similar ones. This is a very good example of how a group of about a hundred or less well-organised people, can direct the course of the protest and impose on the crowd of ten thousand.
It may look odd to some why „the ruler“ would send people to shout against him, but the explanation is pretty obvious. This is a kind of a „ticket“ they have to pay in order to impose their agenda on the people. Their slogans are carefully chosen to be politically harmless („Vučić is gay“), to divide people on the ground of their nationality („Vučić is Albanian“) but not to have any social tone nor deal with the political or financial scandals of the regime. Whatever the reason for people’s protest is (either theft, corruption, demolition of a part of Belgrade called „Savamala“, the largest marijuana farm in Europe called „Jovanjica“, or arms selling affair „Krušik“) – the focus from the main issues is shifted by using standard, empty slogans.
According to the report made by Snežana Čongradin, „these slogans were indeed the loudest, though without energy and sense“.
DIVIDING PEOPLE
Besides shifting of focus, loud shouting of agressive slogans is also meant to isolate the „silent majority“ from the loud minority on the protest. Simply, the aim is to make a large number of participants sick of the protest. The proof that such a technique is bringing results is the reaction of my friends from yesterday’s protest: „They are all Trump’s soldiers and mercenaries in front the parliament, posing as Serbs and asking for Kosovo….“ (Milica), as well as „Nazis infiltrated the protest“ (Mira).
Such ruthless imposing of the agenda is made to prove „the ruler’s“ agenda as dominant, while the real problems because of which people came out on the streets are being marginalized. The psychological effect of this is that an individual feels isolated, that they are not amongst like-minded people, while they actually are.
SUPPRESSING THE RIVALS
The infiltrated agents can not directly and loudly praise „the ruler“ but they can loudly insult his political rivals. If an opposing politician, activist or people’s tribune comes to the protest, they will be ridiculed by „the ruler’s“ stormtroopers. In this way the impession is made that the leaders of the opposition are equally disliked, if not even more than „the ruler“ himself. This trick finds a fruitful ground within the crowd – who are generally sick of all politicians.
On the aforementioned protest, Vuk Jeremić (one of the opposition leaders and former UN General Assembly President) tried to ease the tension near the police cordon in front of the parliament, but was poked, hit and pushed away by aggressive „citizens“ (probably the special police forces) – who shouted „we do not want politicians“. Similar level of violence was applied on other opposing politicians as well.
CAUSING VIOLENCE
Unlike the majority of ordinary people, who came to the protest without any violence in mind, but to experess their dissatisfaction, the goal of special forces is always to cause violence. They are always opposite to the police cordon, shouting agressively and attacking the police. The purpose of causing violence is that in such situations, the citizens always lose, not only in the fileld, but also simbolically in the media.
After the violence broke out, ninety percent of the people left the protest. Family people with children leave, as well as old men and women and the rest of ordinary peole who have not come to beat or be beaten. Mostly the young with an adrenalline rush stay, while the great twist happens – buffed guys who until then led them into violence – turn against them and start beating and arresting them.
The police then starts non-selectively beating everyone within the zone of the protest, in order to intimidate any potential participants of future protests. The images of violence are then shown all around media to warn of the violence to all who dare come again.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Taking over the protest is one of many techniques used for supressing the opposition in Serbia. The ancient technique ‘Divide and rule‘ consists of diminishing the existing Serbian opposition to the level of annihilation. The later, innovative technique of „the ruler“ is aimed at creating of the opposition tailored fully by his will. The recent parliamentary elections in Serbia are exellent example. There were about 20 „opposition“ lists – the majority of which consisted of the obvious regime projects, from the so called „Serbian right“ ran by poor Miša Vacić, over various „leviatans“, „anti-vax“, „anti-immigrantists“ to many other bizarre cases. In spite of his strong will, massive trade with popular votes and lowering the treshold for entering the parliament from the usual 5% to 3% – „the ruler“ has not managed to „push“ any of them in the parliament this time.
This brings us to the main point of this whole ridiculous situation, which is the creation of simulacrum. Based on the regime-controlled TV stations, print media, comments on web portals and social media (also paid and controlled by the regime) – one might think some topics are supported by a great majority of people. Unfortunately, such a fake picture has impact on some opposition parties, which change their rhetorics in line with the so called ‘popular image’ unaware that this is actually part of „the rulers“ agenda. In such a way, instead of the opposition dealing with real social problems – he gets an opscure opposition dealing with bizarre things, pseudo-science, and everything else that one should not be proud of (the example is a sad political fate of Saša Radulović). Still in the end, it turned out, that not a single one of those opscure displays could pass the treshold. This is why „the ruler“ stays in power as a lesser evil.
Translation: Vladimir Kicosevic